August 22, 2013

Chemical Weapons, the Insanity of Eastern Ghouta and Eyes on the Assads

After months of negotiation with the Syrian government about access to the country, the United Nations said a team of inspectors would investigate three sites, including the village of Khan al-Assal near the northern city of Aleppo, where both sides have accused the other of a chemical attack on March 19 that killed dozens of people.

The location of the other two sites has not been made public, and the United Nations team has said it would only seek to determine if chemical weapons were used, not who used them.

I barely know how to access the huge number of photos and videos (1, 2, 3) from the alleged chemical attack in Syria yesterday, forcing myself to look at as much of the imagery as I could stand.

But first, the image above appeared four weeks ago on the “syrianpresidency” Instagram page. It offers Asma al-Assad tenderly wiping the cheek or the eye of a Syrian youth.

This second image is a screen shot from the video of a victim of the event in Eastern Ghouta — a young man, I would guess, of roughly the same age. If the scenes of biological affliction are somehow not the responsibility of the Assad regime (a year to the day Obama drew that line in the sand), than what we’re looking at here are towering examples of visual propaganda. If the victimization of Syrian citizens are, in fact, the heinous act of the government however, what we’re looking at instead is profound and despicable blasphemy.

And then, there’s probably something to be said, also, about fingerprints and the ability to see.